Small But Mighty
by TheVelvetDusk
Summary: One bar, a rowdy booth full of Delta Force's finest, plus a double dose of the unbreakable Preston girls; two worlds are colliding at long last. {future lyatt oneshot} (TFP)


_TFP Prompt: Wyatt is having a night out with his Delta Force unit and they run into Lucy, Amy and the girls. **Optional-This is the first time Wyatt meets Amy after the Time Teams successful mission to get Lucy's parents together** (prompted by kln8525)_

 _a/n - First off, I suck at military terminology, so yeah...those details are (always) sketchy. Someone yell at me in their review if I blatantly botched something specific (seriously, do it in any fic at anytime, because I need help lol). Also,_ _I swear I had no real intention of filling this prompt at all and then it JUST HAPPENED ANYWAY..? It demanded to be written so here we are. As per the prompt, this takes place in a post-canon universe where the team has successfully brought Amy back. I'll let you figure out the rest along the way ;) I still don't own Timeless, but I am pretty sure that Timeless owns me at this point._

* * *

Amy Preston sighs, gives herself a quick once over in the mirror above the bar, shakes out her tawny waves until her hair has achieved that perfect balance of a little messy and sexy without being sloppy, then turns around and strides over to the rowdy booth in the back that's caught her attention, not an ounce of hesitation in her step. She needs a distraction while she waits or she's going to drink herself to death. Apparently the world's worst traffic jam is creating chaos for the better part of the city, which means the rest of her posse is still tragically absent and she's been left alone with nothing to entertain herself for far too long. Her attention span is famously short, a fact that she makes no apologies for because there's no guarantees in this life, so why waste a single second on being bored?

"Evening, fellas."

All five heads turn in flawless unison at the sound of her greeting. The identical ripple of movement is so seamless that she almost thinks she's made a mistake. She certainly didn't take the time to tousle her hair and drag herself over here for a company of male dancers or something like that. Although that could be fun too, now that she thinks about it, but it just wasn't the type of fun she'd had in mind when she'd set her sights on this group.

But no, on a second glance, these guys are unmistakably straight and definitely _not_ dancers _._ She catches the gleam of dog tags dangling from the neck of one or two of them, and then the obvious conclusion clicks into place. _Military._ That accounts for the impeccable synchronization.

"Looks like I was mistaken." She tilts her head with a charming smile, scanning their faces quickly and deciding that her assessment from the bar had been spot on. This group will undoubtedly provide her with the exact type of distraction she seeks. "Let me try that again - evening, _soldiers_."

There are several attractive options among them, but the dark haired one in a plaid button down at the end of the bench is easily the most intriguing of the bunch. His eyes are the most unbelievable shade of blue and he looks like he'd be better suited to a Hollywood movie set than to the gritty alternative of boot camps and bunkers, but Amy's not complaining either way. She's never gone for the military type before, but she's a firm believer in the principle that says there's a first time for anything.

Lucky for her, G.I. Joe is blatantly scrutinizing her with those gorgeous eyes of his, but he's not the first one to speak up. The guy next to him eagerly leans forward with a broad grin and sticks out a hand. "Glad to make the acquaintance, I'm sure. Jonathan W. Benner at your service, Sergeant First Class of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta."

The table erupts into laughter as they all proceed to razz him by shoving at his shoulders or calling him out between guffaws.

"Swear to God, Trigger, you couldn't sound like more of an ass if you tried."

"Seriously, down boy," jeers another one of his buddies.

The man sitting next to him - the adorable one who still watches Amy in a studious way that leaves her as complimented as it does confused - takes his eyes off of her for long enough to slug his friend's arm. "You're an idiot, Trig."

Jonathan shrugs, clearly undeterred. "Excuse me for properly introducing myself to a beautiful woman who comes over to say hello. Someone had to do it since the rest of you are no better than bumps on logs." He looks at Amy expectantly then, his smile never once wavering. "I don't think I caught your name, Miss…?"

She stretches an arm past her true intended target and accepts Sergeant Benner's extended hand at last. "It's Amy. Nice to meet you."

"Same here, Amy. There's plenty of room for you to join us if Wyatt here would just scoot his ass over." His comment hangs in the air without reply for several awkward seconds. "Uh, Wyatt? Dude?"

But Wyatt is apparently choking on his beer or something, because he's looking a little strangled and his eyes are totally bugging out. Jonathan bumps him with his shoulder but Wyatt still doesn't budge. He just continues to wordlessly stare up at Amy like she's a mythical creature come to life. She's not really sure what the hell is up with him, but she certainly has his undivided attention and that's never been a bad sign as far as she's concerned.

"What's wrong, soldier?" she asks with a wink, leaning closer and resting a hand on his shoulder. "Cat got your tongue?"

He opens his mouth at last, but a guy on the opposite side of the table pipes in first. "Take it easy on that one. The man is a self-made monk. He doesn't get out much."

Amy finds that a little hard to believe, but she rolls with it anyhow. "Well that's a shame. Glad you boys could manage to drag him out tonight."

His gaze goes from awestruck to panicked in a split second. "Lucy?"

 _That_ throws her off big time. Shared genetics aside, no one has ever mistaken her for her sister before, and since when has Lucy been hanging out with brawny Army officers?! "Wait, do you know my - "

"Wyatt, hey…"

Amy glances over her shoulder to find that, astonishingly enough, Lucy is the one who's just spoken his name. Her sister is standing there ominously, her face deathly pale as she twists the strap of her purse between tense fingers. Amy whips her head back around to Wyatt, but the dots are failing to connect. "Hold up, the two of you - "

"So you've met Amy," Lucy cuts in with false brightness, her gaze trained on this Wyatt guy with unyielding focus as she tries to recover from whatever wacky Twilight Zone moment they're all caught up in. "Amy, this is - "

"Wyatt, I'm aware. The part that has me confused is that I thought I'd be the one introducing him to you, but it seems that won't be necessary."

Lucy's eyes are now glued to Amy's hand - the one that's still anchored to soldier boy's shoulder - and Amy gives it a quick parting squeeze before releasing him. She has no idea what's going on with the two of them, but seeing as Lucy is clearly two seconds from a meltdown, it must be pretty damn good to warrant that level of weirdness. That in and of itself is so freaking fascinating to Amy that even she is shocked into silence for the time being, because Lucy isn't one to lose her head over any old joe schmo with a stunning combination of chiseled muscles and model-esque cheekbones. She just doesn't. That right has always been reserved for the younger of the two Preston sisters.

"So…" Jonathan Benner - or Trigger, as it seems he may be more affectionately known - says smugly, "...our pal Wyatt isn't such a monk after all, it seems."

One of the guys on the other side of the booth flicks a peanut at Wyatt, laughter evident in his voice as he joins in to hassle him further. "What the hell, Logan. I thought you were getting paid for a real assignment up here, but no...you've just been romancing half of San Francisco this whole time, ya damn Romeo wannabe."

A ruddy redhead who has more or less stayed out of the conversation until now leans across the table to jab teasingly at Wyatt's chin. "Apparently this top secret gig isn't keeping him very busy, huh boys? We should all be so lucky."

"Alright, alright, that's enough," the mysterious Wyatt Logan finally says, straightening up with a smirk that showcases an enticing set of dimples, the sight of which almost has Amy gasping audibly. How the hell did Lucy get to this guy before she did?!

Wyatt peels himself out of the booth and reaches toward Amy, initiating a handshake that is just as firm and unflinching as she would have imagined it to be. "I'm thrilled to meet you, Amy, and I'd love to talk more in a little while if you want to stick around here and hang out. In the meantime, these dogs will treat you right or they'll live to regret it."

Before she even has the chance to ask him where it is that he's off to, he pivots to face Lucy directly and gestures out toward the live band that's playing in the opposite corner of the bar. "Dance with me?"

Amy snorts in a manner that she's sure her sister considers to be less than becoming, but she can't help it. He can't possibly know Lucy very well if he thinks she's going to -

"Okay," Lucy agrees quietly with a small smile perching on her lips. She drops her purse onto the bench seat and turns to follow his lead without sparing Amy another glance.

 _Whoa_. Amy would be willing to bet that the last time Lucy had danced to music with an actual beat was as far back as her brief college singing career. Until tonight, her interest in this whole scene - dating, drinking, dancing - seemed to have pretty much sunk in the same car accident that had almost claimed her very life. The last remnants of her sister's fun streak had taken another huge hit once their mom had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Lucy's natural pull toward a responsible, stable existence had multiplied into full blown compulsion overnight with that news, not that Amy could blame her for reacting that way. The illness has sucked the life out of all of them in one way or another, but Lucy...she just holds that burden so tightly, leaving barely any room for someone else to ease it out of her hands.

So as much as Amy had been hoping to call dibs on Mr. Dancing Dimples, she's officially holding up her white flag of surrender now. Wyatt is effortlessly escorting Lucy out over the sticky floor just like that, no sign of even the most meager fight needed to convince her to join him out there. It's a miraculous vision, one Amy wouldn't believe if it weren't happening right in front of her eyes, and she knows that she owes this guy big time. Her older sister - her best friend in the world - is freaking _dancing_ tonight for the first time in God knows how long. If anyone deserves to cut loose with a gorgeous blue-eyed Prince Charming, it's absolutely Lucy. No question about it.

Amy lowers herself into Wyatt's vacated seat and lets out a long whistle. "Beaten out by my own sister. Well I'll be damned."

* * *

"So that's the infamous Amy, huh? I thought she seemed so familiar right away, but still - _wow_. What are the chances? After all this time...everything we've been through, and she just unknowingly struts right up to me in some hole in the wall bar and that's that." Wyatt shakes his head with a long whistle. "I'll be damned."

Lucy tries to find the humor in that revelation, really tries to do anything that will help her relax at all, but she's pretty sure she's pulverizing Wyatt's hand inside of her own. "I - I didn't know you'd be here."

"Yeah, well this was kind of a last minute thing with the guys and I - no, hold up. _I_ didn't know _you'd_ be here either. I don't know why I'm trying to explain myself when I don't recall being informed of your plans for tonight." He drops the teasing sternness from his voice as they come to the edge of the dance floor, shifting sideways to look at her head on. "Seriously, I thought you'd be holed up for days, maybe even weeks, before I'd see or hear from you again. You've been waiting for this to happen for so long and…and I don't know, this is just about the last place I expected to run into you on day two of Amy being back."

Lucy nods along with that sentiment, a weary but undeniably happy smile spreading over her face. "It didn't really occur to me until she was actually right in front of me, but from Amy's perspective, nothing has changed in the slightest. To her, she's never been gone, you know? So my smothering need to keep her to myself and spend every waking moment in her presence is coming off as kind of insane. She already had plans to meet up with friends tonight and I think I shocked her right off her ass when I insisted that I was coming too."

"You're two for two on that count then," Wyatt says with a grin as he takes her by the waist and pulls her further into the crowd. "Her jaw nearly hit the floor when you said yes to dancing."

"She usually can't convince me to go out with her at all, let alone to dance with…"

"With the types of guys that she usually picks up in places like this?"

Lucy tries to look away, but he slides a hand against her cheek and keeps her right where he can see her. "I knew it...I knew that's what was happening when I got here, but I was really hoping to be wrong."

"Why?" he asks with a stupidly arrogant smirk. "There's plenty of me to go around, Lucy."

She pushes him away with real force this time, taking a massive step back from him and attempting to fill her lungs with as much oxygen as she can possibly absorb. It doesn't help. "God, this is just too weird. I don't want to do this here, so - "

"Okay, whoa there. C'mon, you know I was kidding - "

Lucy dodges his reaching hands and shakes her head. "Well it's not funny, alright? Been there, done that. It's not the riot you think it is."

All amusement vanishes from his face immediately. "I'm sorry, I...I didn't know. With the way you talk about her and how close you guys are, I would have never guessed that she would - "

"She didn't. My boyfriend came onto her while I was away at a conference. She broke his nose and threatened to do worse if he ever laid a hand on either of us again."

Wyatt smiles softly with a nod. "See, that's more like what I was expecting. Not the shithead boyfriend part, but the rest of it."

"Yeah, she was amazing about it...always is," Lucy murmurs, her eyes sweeping past him to find Amy regaling the entire group of Wyatt's friends with a monologue that has them in stitches. "It's just who she is. A natural badass and total spitfire. I love her for it even if I occasionally wish that it came with an off switch."

"You do realize that it runs in the family, right? You're no wallflower, Luce."

Wyatt's hands are on her waist again and she inevitably moves back toward him like a polarized magnet. "It's different. She's fun and daring and unpredictable. I'm...outspoken. Bossy. Overbearing."

"Intelligent. Assertive. Passionate." He drifts closer, his mouth hovering dangerously near to hers. "Look, Amy seems cool and I'm totally flattered, but that's it. She's too late. I'm already smitten with the other Preston sister."

Lucy stops her halfhearted swaying and clamps her hands around his shoulders in a death grip. "Smitten?"

She cringes at how high her voice has climbed on that one word, but Wyatt is all smiles.

"What did you think, that we've just been killing time together for fun?" At her complete lack of any response, he nudges his face against hers and lets his lips touch down light and fast over her cheek. "I know this relationship has been far from cookie cutter perfect, but I thought we both knew how we really felt about each other, babydoll."

"I…" she wants to agree easily and just admit that yes, _obviously yes_ , she's head over heels for him, but her brain provides a much different answer and she can't help but put it out there for him to hear. "Your friends don't know about me. From what I heard, they think you've got one foot in a monastery."

He chuckles into her hair as one wily hand snakes lower than what common decency says is passable for public displays of affection. "They're just a few guys from my old unit who randomly drove up here to screw around for a weekend. Believe it or not, we're not exactly penpals while we're apart. I don't send a newsletter with my life updates out to those asshats. I mean, I love them and all, but at the end of the day they're still asshats. Not really the sentimental sharing type if you know what I mean."

Lucy nods slowly, recalling one of those particular asshats throwing his peanut shells at Wyatt from across the table just because he _knew_ her. Point taken.

"I couldn't help but notice that you haven't told Amy about me either." He tips his head slightly to pin her with a penetrating look. "I know she's only been back for two days, but - "

"Check your phone, Wyatt," she cuts him off dryly.

He raises an eyebrow at that response but does as told, retrieving it from his back pocket and giving it a brief glance before meeting her eyes with a rueful half smile. "Yeah, I'm free for lunch tomorrow and I'd love to meet her. Thanks for asking."

She smiles back at him, choosing for once to spare him the lecture on his perpetual inability to read a text message every once in awhile. "No problem. I just knew that she'd believe me a whole lot faster if I could offer concrete evidence that you were a real person sooner rather later. I don't date much in this timeline."

"Well I think she should have plenty of proof after tonight," he returns with another one of those heart-stopping smirks, "unless those jackasses at my table convince her that I really am a eunuch or something. Which they may try to do, just to warn you."

"Right," she laughs, "what did I just say about having one foot in the monastery? They were pretty convinced about that."

"That part shouldn't have fazed you," he says somewhat gruffly with his cheek pressing soundly to the side of her head. "You certainly know otherwise, ma'am."

His hand - the one that had already strayed beyond her waist a minute or so ago - is now wantonly dipping even lower to blatantly grope her backside. She almost swats his hand away in reproach; she knows she should, but in the end she can't convince herself to discourage him, not when he makes her feel a whole other person when they're together like this. His insatiable hands are always on her whenever she's within reach, his voice often rumbles low in her ear as if everything he says is a secret between just the two of them, and that's only the beginning. He never ceases to bring out this unequivocal vibrancy in her that she's never experienced with anyone else. He's open and unrestrained in his affection for her, he has been ever since they first started down this path a few months back, and now more than ever she wants to flaunt it for her own sake. It's definitely not to spite Amy and she really has nothing to prove to those Delta Force guys. Lucy just wants _him_ , wants to remind herself that she's had him all along, a fact that clearly isn't changing now even if everything else around them is.

And she's not the same person anymore. That's what it really boils down to in the end. She's not that girl who chickened out of her dreams to pursue music because of a terrifying car accident that shook her to the core. She's not the devastated woman whose sister had been ripped away by the unpredictable repercussions of time travel gone wrong. She's not a coward who runs in fear of her future just because there's a few more skeletons in the family closet than she'd ever imagined could exist. She's learned to push back against the path of destiny, to live on her own terms without giving credence to the crippling fear of choosing incorrectly, much of which she owes to the man standing right in front of her.

So that's it. She's done with fear. She'd stopped letting it control her some time ago and she isn't letting it back in now.

Lucy allows Wyatt's hand to stay right where it is. That suddenly doesn't feel like enough of a statement, so she shimmies closer and kisses him ardently for anyone and everyone to see. He's surprised, she can feel it in his kiss, but he's smiling against her mouth and that's her absolute favorite thing. Of all their kisses, the ones that make him smile like that are incomparably the best of them all.

"I love you, Wyatt," she breathes out with a smile of her own before kissing him again until she's pleasantly lightheaded and physically incapable of going on any longer.

"I love you too," he answers a bit tightly after a beat or two passes them by. "And on that note, it's now impossible for me to go anywhere without walking a little crooked, so we're stuck out here until I can get that under control. Those guys'll never let me live it down, and I mean _never_."

Lucy bites down on her lower lip and feels heat rising up her neck. "Sorry."

"I'm not," he laughs back at her, his wayward hand climbing higher to find much safer territory at the middle of her back. "Just remember that you're the one who's responsible for this issue. A spitfire in your own right if I've ever known one. And that dress of yours isn't helping matters."

She glances down at her simple wine colored shift dress, momentarily taken aback by the raw heat in his gaze. "Really?"

"Really. Ninety percent of my motivation for asking you to dance was because I could tell we needed to talk without an audience. A solid ten percent was solely dedicated to the fact that I selfishly wanted you and this dress all to myself. Now that the talking is over, that latter part is up to a full one hundred."

"Huh. Guess I'll hold onto this one then," she says with a shrug.

"Please do," Wyatt requests with his fingers skimming softly over the outline of her keyhole neckline.

"I was afraid I'd be out of place here, but this was the best I could do in a pinch." At his doubtful look, she's compelled to elaborate even if it's the last thing she wants to do. "Amy's friends are a little wild. They'll turn up any minute now, and there's a good chance that they'll be instantly recognizable as the ones who could easily pass for strippers. I like them well enough most days, but they can be a lot to handle sometimes."

His hand cups her shoulder with inherent warmth as he leans in to leave a kiss on her forehead. "I'm going to tell you something you should already know, but I think you might need to hear it anyway, so bear with me here because the first part makes me sound like a total dick."

Lucy feels a snicker rising in her throat but she just nods him on.

"More often than not, I can't go out to a bar like this without an Amy-type girl eventually popping up and trying to approach me. Even when I had a wedding ring on…" he shakes his head with a grimace, "they were still relentless. It happens almost every time I'm out with these guys, sometimes even more than once in a night."

"You think this is something I _need_ to hear?" she asks incredulously.

"Listen," he says with a longsuffering smile, "I'm sure Amy and her stripper friends are all great people deep down, so that's not the point. What I'm saying is that none of this stuff matters. I married Jess because I loved her and wanted forever with her, so even after a few years had passed and everyone told me it was time to try again, I just... _couldn't_. I wasn't interested in throwing myself at the first bold, barely-dressed woman who wanted to take me home for the night, and I'm still not. Which is why those guys give me such a hard time, by the way. They've seen it a thousand times and the end result is always the same. And I'm not trying to say that I've lived my whole life like a saint because that would be a serious load of BS, but once you've had the real thing, this whole scene is just unbelievably cheap."

"The real thing, huh?" Lucy asks in a scraping voice.

"Yeah...and you and I, we've been an anomaly from the beginning. We were teammates who became best friends before we fell for each other. That's like eighteen levels of trust that I otherwise don't offer up to much of anyone." His forehead presses to hers and she feels his gentle sigh before he speaks again. "You snuck up on me, Lucy. I don't think it could have happened any other way."

She leaves a fluttering kiss on his mouth and makes a desperate grab for some fragment of a joke to keep herself from giving in to the riptide of her seesawing emotions. "So what you're saying is that I'm officially writing a thank you note to Garcia Flynn for stealing that damn time machine in the first place…"

"Let's not get carried away now," he retorts quickly with a warning look.

Lucy just laughs into him and holds on a little bit tighter. He reciprocates by gathering her even further into him, to the point where there's really no room for dancing anymore. His head ducks down into the crook of her shoulder for a few short seconds before he's standing tall again, an evil grin coloring his whole face.

"Looks like the rest of your crew is here, Luce."

She twists in his embrace and stifles a giggle at the pair of Amy's flimsily dressed friends who have joined her at Wyatt's booth and are now gaping slack-jawed in their direction. If she's not mistaken, one of them even has an iPhone aimed their way for the sake of documentation.

"Like I said...Amy practically lost her mind when I simply invited myself along for the evening. Add _you_ into that equation and there's no telling what kind of hysterics might break out. Hope your guys are up on their CPR training, because it just might come to that."

"Oh, trust me...they'll be all too willing to volunteer." With a firm arm secured around her waist, he tilts his head toward the table and releases a grudging exhale. "Shall we? I'm afraid our two worlds colliding so suddenly may result in a very ugly boom if we don't get over there and supervise. I didn't bring bail money with me tonight and I know you never carry that kind of cash."

"Not a bad idea," she confirms with a nod. "Actually, I'm surprised I didn't think of it first. Better watch out, Wyatt, or you'll be the one who's labeled as bossy and overbearing if you keep up with that level of micromanagement."

"And after that wowzer of a kiss you laid on me out here for all to see, I'd say that the word reckless might soon be filed under your name."

"What can I say? I had a good teacher," she quips with a sly smile.

For all of the dewy-eyed emotion that's just been traded back and forth between them, Lucy feels reality come crashing back in like a brick to the stomach at the thought of what she may be returning to now. Just how much of a mess had she left behind when she'd been so quick to flee their table a few minutes ago? It's all a bit of a blur at this point. Had she been a total bitch to Amy? The last thing she wants is to be fighting with her sister in the first 48 hours of their reunion, especially not when they're potentially fighting over _Wyatt_ of all things. That thought is so ridiculous that is almost makes her laugh, but there's nothing other than anxiety fizzing in her gut as Wyatt leads her back to the spot where this whole tangled up thing started.

Each and every one of her concerns are instantly obliterated as Amy comes flying at her with a hurricane-force hug. "I don't know who the hell you are or what you've done with my sister, but you look _so happy_ , Lucy."

"That's because I am happy, Amy." For about the millionth time in two days, Lucy has to brutally shove back her impulse to break into grateful sobs at every minuscule bit of contact she has with her little sister. "So much more than I can ever tell you."

"Well it's about damn time you start telling me, don't you think? Geez, I was almost putting the moves on your secret boyfriend. Talk about embarrassing." Despite her flippant tone, there's no mistaking the seriousness in her eyes as she steps back. "You know I would never do that on purpose, so how about you start informing me when you meet someone important so I know he's off limits."

Amy barely stops rambling to Lucy before she's spinning around to poke Wyatt very deliberately in the chest. "And _you_. I don't know much about you, Wyatt Logan, but my sister has incredibly high standards, so you must be alright. And if you're _not_ alright, I promise I will tear into you with the vengeance of a thousand Carrie Underwood songs. Keying your car will just be the beginning, soldier. I've got way more up my sleeve than that. Understood?"

Lucy tries to interrupt with a horrified groan, but Wyatt won't hear a word of her protests. He looks Amy square in the eyes and nods his head solemnly. "Understood. And honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm glad Lucy has you in her corner."

"I knew you had a good vibe," Amy says with a delighted grin before unleashing a second whirlwind of a hug, trapping Wyatt against herself with a big bear squeeze.

Wyatt locks his wide-eyed gaze on Lucy from above Amy's shoulder. "You Preston girls and these damn rib-crushing hugs. How can two such tiny - "

"Small but mighty," Amy inserts mid-sentence as she lets go of him to throw an arm around Lucy's shoulders. "That's us - small but mighty. Don't ever underestimate the Preston sisters."

Lucy feels herself flushing pink as Wyatt fixes all of his attention on her, his mouth angling upward into a heartfelt smile. "Trust me, I wouldn't dream of it."


End file.
